Michael Harold Coffman (born March 19, 1955) is an American politician, businessman, and veteran of the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps serving as Mayor of Aurora, Colorado since 2019.

Coffman was first elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in 1988, being reelected in 1990 prior to his appointment to the State Senate in December 1994.

Upon graduation from the University of Colorado, Coffman transferred from the Army Reserve to the United States Marine Corps in 1979, becoming an infantry officer.

Shortly after winning re-election in 1990, he took an unpaid leave of absence from the statehouse during his active duty service in the Persian Gulf War, during which time he saw combat as a light armored infantry officer.

[9] In 1998, Coffman was elected as State Treasurer of Colorado with 51% of the vote, defeating Democratic nominee Jim Polsfut.

[12] During the general election of 2008, when Coffman was Secretary of State of Colorado, several groups accused the secretary of state's office of improperly marking 6,400 voter registration forms as incomplete, because they failed to check a box on the form, required by legislation sponsored by then Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon in 2006.

[13] Coffman's office responded that incomplete registrations require voters to either re-register or provide extra identification when they go to vote.

[16] Coffman announced that he would run for the U.S. House seat being vacated by retiring Republican Tom Tancredo in 2008 in Colorado's 6th congressional district.

[26] In July 2016, the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity announced plans to launch a major advertising campaign opposing Carroll.

[27][28] Coffman subsequently held a public town hall meeting the following April, where he was challenged and often shouted down by residents of his district and others in attendance.

"[30] Coffman also made national news during the town hall, telling the audience that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer "needs to go" because of his historically inaccurate remarks about the Holocaust.

[31] Coffman's 2018 Democratic opponent was Jason Crow, an attorney and Iraq War veteran, who beat Levi Tillemann in the primary by a 66 to 34 margin.

[32] On July 2, 2018, the New York Times ran an article about the fact that a district populated by Somalis, Japanese, Koreans, Latinos, and other minorities has continued to be "a scene of frustration and failure for Democrats, who in a series of expensive elections had been unable to unseat Mike Coffman."

The Times explained that Coffman had "kept winning in part because he has sought to show he embraced the needs of his newer constituents," and had become "a renegade Republican on immigration issues.

The Republican National Congressional Committee confirmed on October 19, 2018, that it had pulled the remaining $1 million in television ad spending in an apparent assessment that Coffman was likely to lose.

[53] Coffman supports nationwide reciprocity of concealed weapons permits and opposes universal background checks for gun purchases.

He also supports allowing cannabis businesses access to banking, medical marijuana research, and industrial hemp farming.

[58] In January 2018, Coffman joined other Colorado congressman in criticizing a memo by Attorney General Jeff Sessions announcing his intention to rescind the Obama-era practice of allowing states to make marijuana use legal.

"[68][69] Coffman voted against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which was a stimulus package intended to save and create jobs, and provide temporary relief programs as a response to the Great Recession.

He also supported a bill that would reverse an Obama administration rule confiscating guns from people unable to manage their Social Security benefits.

At a February 2018 town hall, Coffman said he would consider “reasonable restrictions” on gun rights “within the parameters of the Second Amendment.” He said he would not support an assault-weapons ban, but would allow the temporary confiscation of firearms from persons who represented a threat to themselves or others.

[82] In response to a 2013 Gazette report about veterans with mental health conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, being stripped of medical benefits, Coffman sponsored a 2014 amendment that would allow servicemen with mental health issues who were discharged because of misconduct to appeal for medical discharge instead.

[84][85] Coffman was the first congressman to call for Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki to resign after misconduct at multiple VA facilities was revealed.

Coffman wrote the president that Shulkin “lacks the moral authority to achieve your goals of a transparent, accountable VA that is dedicated to meeting our nation's obligations to the men and women who wore the uniform and made tremendous sacrifices in defense of our freedoms.”[91] In July 2018, Coffman supported a congressional bill to reinstate net neutrality rules.

[92] In August 2014, Coffman broke ranks with the Republican Party and voted against a bill that would have dismantled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

[94][95] Coffman opposed President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order to impose a temporary ban on entry to the U.S. to citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, stating: "While I've supported heightened vetting procedures, I have never, nor will I ever support a blanket travel ban, for people solely based on ethnic or religious grounds.

In September of that year, however, Representative Bob Goodlatte chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he would not act on any such legislation before addressing criminal foreign gangs and border security.

[97] In June 2018, Coffman said the Trump administration was “heading in the wrong direction” on immigration owing to Stephen Miller's role as a presidential advisor.

Coffman said that Trump should fire Miller, whom he described as “completely tone deaf when it comes to reforming our immigration system.”[98] Also in June 2018, he talked to NPR about the separation of illegal immigrants from their children, saying that the White House should “appoint one person solely focused on the reunification issue of these families.” He said he had visited a detention center for children, and found the conditions there to be “pretty good.”[99] In September 2016, Coffman co-sponsored the Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2015, which would restore some protections in the 1965 Voting Rights Act that had been removed by the United States Supreme Court.